Week 12-The Information Society

Manuel Castells proposes in his book, The Internet Galaxy, that today’s communication and information systems are organized by and around the Internet and that has led to the emergence of a network society; a new economy; a new communication environment; and new opportunities and threats to freedom. A new social pattern, called “networked individualism” is emerging as a result of three independent processes joining together: 1) the economy’s need for management flexibility and globalization, 2) society’s demands that individual freedom and open communication be dominant, and 3) computing and telecommunication advancements. The internet, as “a horizontal, non-controlled, relatively cheap, channel of communication of one-to-one, one-to-many,and (p. 157),” is creating a new political dynamic through this rapid and easy exchange of information and the elimination of political secrets.

By providing the context for the emergence of the network society and new economy and by delving into the historical and cultural basis for the development of the internet, Castells provides a baseline of understanding for the future development and use of this communication tool. He illustrates throughout the book how the three integral factors which drove the emergence of the internet as we know it today -- innovation, productivity and economic development -- are also driving the new economy. He also expertly sifted through sometimes sketchy research, anecdotal evidence, and futurists’ conjectures, to sort fact or reality from myth or preconceptions that have emerged about the Internet.

The new network society has presented people with, not only opportunities for increased interaction, but has also created a certain degree of isolation. If community is defined as a sharing of values and social interaction, then the Internet is the perfect platform for the development of community, however not in the traditional spatial and geographical way, but rather in a virtual format. Place-based sociability is evolving into a network of affinity-based social interactions built by the choices and strategies of the social actors. Geographically more people are gravitating to the large urban centers because knowledge generation and information processing, sources of power and value in the information age, are fostered there by the internet. Castells asks an intriguing question, which is worse, inclusion or exclusion from the use of the internet? Certainly as a society we need to be concerned about the consequences of those who aren’t connected to the internet, but connection to the Internet can make a person more dependent upon the economies and culture that have been created by the Internet which can isolate them physically (Castells, p.247).

Internet technology is still a relatively new communication tool and it is still not clear if new patterns of social interaction are emerging from the use of the Internet or if it is leading to social isolation. Will it be the savior or the doom of democracy? While the Internet can, as Castells points out, broaden the space of freedom, articulate the defense of human rights, and propose alternative views in political debate (p.164), it also contains elements of control over individual’s rights of privacy and free expression. Commerce, the one element that largely drove the development of the internet, is also the leader in eroding these personal freedoms by leveraging the technologies of control through identification, surveillance and investigation of people’s private lives for profit and political purposes. A new global governance model it also emerging as a result of the internet. For example, if a German citizen commits a crime in the U.S. using the internet, which government has jurisdiction?

Castells outlines the challenges facing us as a society as we embrace and integrate this new and powerful communication and information tool. We are at a crossroads in which decisions will need to be made about just how “free” communication will be on the internet. Governments are not only trying to control the flow of information but to also monitor and examine the type of information consumed by internet users, as illustrated by the U.S government’s recent subpoena for Google’s customers’ search activities. If this new political dynamic is to prosper, the issues of exclusion and education will need to be addressed. Too much credit may have been given to the internet as the driving force for these changes in society and the economy. I believe that there were other changes occurring within society and businesses in the late 1950’s and 1960’s which set the stage for the quick acceptance and integration of this new communication tool.